Lone Surviving Mumbai Terrorist Secretly Hanged

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Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg a few months before they were gunned down in the terror attack which killed them and their unborn child.

Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist to survive the Mumbai attacks in 2008, was secretly hanged Wednesday in India. The Pakistani national had become the symbol of the attack as a photo of him in a black t-shirt and holding an Ak-47 as he strutted through the Mumbai train station was published around the world.

According to The Times of India, Home minister Sushil Shinde said: “Ajmal Kasab was hanged at 7:30am. It took the Maharashtra government less than two weeks to hang Kasab after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his mercy petition on November 5. Two days later, Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde signed on the file. It was sent to the Maharashtra government on November 8 and November 21, today, was fixed as the date of execution.”

He was buried inside the prison where he was hanged, officials said. India said it would hand over the body to Pakistan if a request was made.

It was the first time a capital sentence had been carried out in India since 2004. There was relief on the streets of Mumbai as news of the execution swiftly spread.

The attack claimed 166 lives, including those of Chabad rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his pregnant wife Rivka, who were living in the Nariman Chabad House, and injured 300.